Roseau, Dominica – March 22, 2018… The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development in collaboration with IsraAID and UNICEF will launch a disaster preparedness programme for the country’s schools at the Goodwill Parish Hall on March 26th, 2018, at 9am. Principals, education officials and partner representatives will participate.

The Disaster Risk Management (DRM) project aims to build a culture of natural hazard risk reduction within the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development and within the education system, in order to minimize potential damages to schools caused by natural hazards by strengthening capacity, preparedness, response, and recovery.

The student and community-targeted programme was developed by UNICEF and IsraAID at the request of the Ministry of Education & Human Resource Development. Using student participatory processes, the programme will train children in disaster risk re-education through a participatory Hazard, Vulnerability, and Capacity Assessment (HVCA) of their unique communities.

The innovative programme further aims to enhance community capacities by working with children on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) initiatives in their own communities, building on local knowledge and understanding of needs to create adaptive protocols.

The programme strives to execute a National Drill, build school emergency templates based on each community’s specific areas of vulnerability, assemble DRR guidelines for ‘building back better,’ and to organize a contingency plan for the Ministry of Education & Human Resource Development.